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COMMANDEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 



WAR PAPER 31. 

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(JDMMAWDEI^y OF THE DI^TI^ICT OF (:!OLUlV[BIi\. 



WAR PAPERS. 

31 

IFlu-sser an,d iKe vj^'^lbemarle. 

PREPARED BY COMPANION 

A. A. Paymaster 

FRANK WARREN HACKETT, 

Late U. S. N., 

AND 

READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF NOVEMBER 1, 1899. 



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^hwtx and the gllbcmatlc. 



In the autumn of 1862 the United States steam gunboat 
Miaiin, after having done picket duty on the James river, 
was ordered from Hampton Roads to the Sounds of North 
CaroHna. The Miami had been built somewhat hastilv at the 
Navy Yard, Philadelphia, and was, I believe, the first to be 
launched of a class of double-enders, so called. She was a large 
paddle-wheel steamer, with, a long flush deck, and furnished 
with steering gear and a rudder at the bow as well as stern, so 
that she would run forward or backward, an important ad- 
vantage in river service, for which this class of light-draught 
vessels was designed. 

As a matter of fact it turned out that she ran much better 
stern foremost. Her capacity for taking a sheer was phe- 
nomenal. Before I was ordered to her as an Acting Assistant 
Paymaster she had been with Porter's mortar fleet below 
New Orleans. Here she managed to inspire almost as much 
dread in our own fleet as on the part of the enemy ; and her 
wayward behavior had gained for her the nickname of the 
"Miasma." 

In the hope of checking this propensity to run into other 
ships an enormous wheel had been placed upon her hurricane 
deck, with the pilot protected in part by sheets set upright 
of boiler iron. For all this eccentricity the Miami proved to 
be a comfortable ship to live in with plenty of deck room. 
She carried a very formidable battery. We had four 9-inch 
Dahlgrens on either side; a 9-inch pivot aft, and a hundred 
pound Parrot rifle forward, besides a complement of howitzers. 



Our commander was Acting Lieutenant Robert Townsend — 
a fine officer of the old school. He had resigned from the 
service sometime before the war, but had now returned when 
his country needed him. In the fight with the forts below 
New Orleans, when he was executive officer of the Miami, 
Townsend had displayed admirable coolness and bravery. 
He was an accomplished man of polished manners and de- 
voted to reading. He was a large, fine-looking man, and though 
he wore his hair in short ringlets and was of a benignant 
countenance, he exhibited unusual strength of character. 
Captain Townsend was liked by all on board, for all had the 
fullest confidence in his ability and courage. 

After some months of service at Washington and other 
points we were, much to our regret, deprived of our com- 
manding officer, for the Department, knowing the value of 
Townsend's qualifications, detached him and ordered him to 
the command of the ironclad Essex on the upper Mississipppi. 
His place was supplied temporarily by Commander Henry K. 
Davenport, then the senior officer in command in North 
Carolina waters. 

On the 8th of May, 1863, all hands were mustered to witness 
the turning over of the command to Lieutenant Commander 
Charles W. Flusser. This gallant young officer (for he was 
scarcely thirty years of age) was no stranger to us, or to any 
sailor or soldier who had served on the North Carolina coast. 
No sooner indeed had we reached Hatteras Inlet on our way 
to the Sounds than we began to hear of Flusser and his achieve- 
ments. The story of his dashing straight at the rebel flag- 
ship in the action at Roanoke Island, and his hailing Commo- 
dore Lynch with "Get out your fenders," and of his unceasing 
activity in these waters with the Commodore Perry, a man-of- 
war improvised out of a ferry-boat, was a topic of admiring 



conversation time and time again among officers and men. We 
knew he had a brilHant career in prospect; in fact, he had 
already gained great distinction. Flusser was the one man in 
the Sounds of North CaroHnawhom everybody, afloat or ashore, 
regarded as a born leader, a daring yet wise commander. 

It may well be imagined, therefore, that we felt honored 
having such an officer as our captain. Flusser looked like 
a man capable of great deeds. You could not be in his presence 
without at once seeing that he was of a superior mettle. He 
was a little below medium height, sparely built, of light com- 
plexion, bronzed from exposure, with a large and piercing 
eye, and a long tawny moustache, the ends of which he some- 
times unconsciously pulled while talking. His favorite dress 
was a blue jacket given open to the breeze, without waistcoat, 
and his cap had a habit of perching itself jauntily to one side. 
While lying off Plymouth there was much time to go ashore ; 
and our captain used to be a good deal on horseback, mostly 
at full speed, for it was his habit to move quickly whether on 
deck or on land. 

Sailors, among themselves, habitually speak of the com- 
manding officer as "The Old Man," with a fine disregard for 
actual years. It seemed no way inappropriate that gray-haired 
petty officers should allude to Captain Flusser as "The Old 
Man," he appearing to them, as he did, the embodiment of so 
much authority and dignity. 

Our new commander had not been a week on board before 
a marked change was visible in the discipline of the crew. 
Everything about the ship was put in first class man-of-war 
order. Drills were more frequent and more exacting, and the 
rattle was sprung at any moment when least looked for to call 
us to quarters. A sense of graver responsibility seemed to 
rest upon every officer. 



6 



Our chief station remained, as before, at Plymouth, a small 
town that straggled along the right bank of the Roanoke, 
not a great distance above its mouth, where it empties into 
Albemarle Sound. For much of the time the stream at Ply- 
mouth, which has no great width, is turbid and yellow. The 
Union forces, it should be explained, held Hatteras Inlet, 
Roanoke Island, Plymouth, Washington, New Berne, and, at the 
ocean, Morehead City — the two latter towns being connected by 
a railroad that we operated. To get from one of our points to 
another (save only by this railroad connection) required a long 
detour by water. It had been a dream of Flusser, from the 
first, to steam up the Roanoke, and in co-operation with the 
army, to seize and occupy Weldon, a point of vital conse- 
quence in the defense of Richmond; but the plan was never 
attempted. 

Flusser knew no idle moments. He had early applied him- 
self to a study of the topography of this region, the facilities 
of communication by land and by water, the character of the 
people, the extent of the lurking Union sentiment; in a word, 
of all that variety of detail whose acquisition goes far to make 
a military mind the master of the situation. He never lost an 
opportunity to keep close watch of what the enemv was doing, 
or was likely to do; and he managed somehow, with more or 
less regularity, to get news from the interior. The Raleigh 
Standard, printed, I remember, on a half sheet of coarse paper, 
used to find its wa}' through our lines at repeated intervals. 
Our captain knew "Johnny Reb " and his methods pretty 
thoroughly, and he was not easily deceived. 

I may say here that Flusser was of Maryland birth, and 
had entered the Navy in 1847, from Kentucky. His two 
brothers, Ottaker and Guy, served in the rebel army. Both 
were killed; one wav in the advance at Malvern Hill. In- 



tensely loyal was Flusser. To his young sister, who was the 
only other member of the family that remained true to the 
Union, he wrote: "As for me you may expect me to do my 
duty. All that I am I owe to my country." A letter written 
by him to Captain Tatnall of the Navy, who had resigned to go 
South, as I recall it, was scorching in the terms with which 
he denounced treachery to the flag. So ardent were the feel- 
mgs of this noble spirit that when his own brother sent word 
by fiag-of-truce that he would like to meet Charles and talk 
with him, the latter refused to consider it. 

Let us pass over the narrative of expeditions made to 
various points, and over many events of minor importance, to 
come directly to the subject of this paper— the rebel ram 
Albemarle, and the tragic story of Flusser 's heroism in his 
conflict with that historic ironclad vessel. 

The startling success of the Mcrrimac in her attack upon 
the Cumberland and the Congress emboldened the little Con- 
federate Navy with hopes of victory elsewhere over wooden 
hulls. Our naval commanders were not unaware of the danger . 
As early as October, 1862, Rear- Admiral Lee, in command 
of the North Atlantic Squadron, urged upon the Secretary 
of the Navy the necessity of building ironclads of light draught 
for service in North Carolina waters and elsewhere. The 
subject was considered, and the Navy Department contracted 
with private builders for twenty of these vessels, some of 
which, by the terms of the contract, were to be completed as 
early as September, 1863, but for various reasons the con- 
struction was faulty, and this class of "monitors" was never 
available. 

Soon after the first arrival of the Miami at Plymouth, 
where the Commodore Perry and some smaller gunboats were on 
guard, rumors were rife that the enemy were at work further 



8 



up the river, upon an ironclad, supposed to be building some- 
where near Hamilton. When Flusser took command, and our 
permanent station was off Plymouth, the rebel ram became 
a lively topic of conversation; but, of course, I knew nothing 
of what information the captain had from time to time gath- 
ered, nor till a much later period did I learn what were his 
plans of defense against her. 

The private letters, now at the Navy Department, written 
b}" Captain Flusser to Captain Davenport of the Hctzel, at 
New Berne, I have now, after the lapse of thirty-five years, had 
an opportunity to read. They bring back vividly those scenes 
of the past. It must be premised that Flusser gave timely 
intelligence to his superiors of what was going on. So great a 
confidence did the Secretary of the Navy have in his judg- 
ment and fertility of resource that at a very early period he 
sent for Lieutenant Commander Flusser to come to Washing- 
ton to confer on the subject of the threatened incursion of 
this formidable craft. The visit was hurriedly paid, just as 
soon as it had been authoritatively learned that the ram was 
under construction. Flusser writes, 22d July, 1863; "The 
floating battery and steamer up the river at Edwards Ferry 
are having their irons put on. They could be destroyed by 
500 cavalry, landing at Winton, and marching on them with 
some combustibles. If they are not destroyed they will give us 
trouble yet. Keep it quiet and suggest it to Foster or Potter." 
Later, on the 9th October, he says, "There is another report 
of the Roanoke sheep. It is said she is surely coming down 
now in a few days, and as I intend to sink her, and need the 
aid of the Soitthficld, I know of no one whom I would rather 
have to aid mie than French." This was Acting Volunteer 
Lieutenant Charles A. French, an officer of much merit, in whom 
Flusser placed great reliance. On 27th October he sent word 



of a report that the ram had sunk when hiunched, expressing 
his doubt as to whether this be not "a weak invention of the 
enemy." Again, on 8th November he says: "There was a report 
that the ram was to have been at Plymouth on Thursday last. 
No attack yet. If the battery they contemplate putting up 
there to hold one hundred-pounder, and one two hundred- 
pounder was complete I tliink I should be glad to see the boat 
come down. At any rate, with what we have I'll try pretty 
hard to whip her. Send up the Soitthfield." On November 
1 6th: "I have kept the Delaware here because I thought the 
ram might come down. Last report from above is that she 
sunk while launching, and that the rebs are blocking up the 
river with stones — both lies I suspect. I am trying to make 
one more torpedo." Five days later he says, "I think we will 
have time to put things in good order before our friend from 
above ventures down. 1 recjuired six hulls from the admiral. 
I think the army will send some." These hulls he intended 
to sink in the channel above as an obstruction. He sent to 
the admiral a well-designed plan for sinking these obtructions 
with torpedoes, but his plan could not be, or at least was not, 
acted upon. On 25th November, 1863, he writes: "The 
Admiral seems to think it was scarcely worth while to block 
up the river here. If he thinks so I do tain bieii, so I suppose 
he'll soon send you orders for the light boats here." (These 
were strong vessels that in peace times were used to display 
a light, anchored off dangerous shoals in the Sounds.) "In 
the meantime I shall build some torpedoes, and have the boats 
ready to sinS: in case we hear that the vessel is more formidable 
or more nearly completed than we now think her." 

These letters were written usually from Plymouth. Flusser 
had one or two small gunboats with him with which he would 
occasionally go out into the Sound, up the Chowan river, or 
to other points where guerrillas were heard from. 



lO 



Anyone who has been on a ship in war times knows the 
rapidity with which rumors of all sorts and descriptions pass 
among the crew and in the smoking-room of the officers. Of 
course, as we chatted nobody appeared to know anything of 
the plans of the captain. We all had an implicit faith that he 
would be equal to any emergency that might arise. It was 
a pretty serious prospect, however, that of an ironclad vessel 
coming down to attack us, who depended solely on wooden 
walls. As a precautionary measure a water battery had been 
built just above the town of Plymouth, and a two-hundred 
pound rifle gun mounted there. It was intended to keep a 
sharp lookout and sink the invader by one well-directed shot 
from this powerful gun. Of course, we had a picket boat up 
the river constantly on duty. 

We may turn aside for a moment to mention an incident 
that shows what type of a man was the officer of whom we 
are speaking. The troops on shore, holding Plymouth be- 
hind strong fortifications, were about two thousand in number, 
under command of one of the best soldiers in the army, 
Brigadier General Henry W. Wessells, a man as brave as he 
was modest. 

Flusser writes to Davenport, under date of March 4, 1864, 
as follows: 

"In the New York Herald of the 27th ult. there appears a 
silly article about General Wessells and myself. I had not 
observed it till Gen. Wessells spoke to me of it, and showed me 
a letter he had written to Gen. Peck concerning it. I re- 
quested him to state that it was equally repugnant to me as 
to him. I have no desire for newspaper notoriety. Will 
you do me the favor to ascertain who it was who wrote it, and 
have the thing stopped for the future ? Such articles may be 
intended to do an officer good, but they injure his reputation 



II 



among officers — those whose opinion he regards, and can only 
avail with the masses, whose good opinion, if undeserved, he 
should despise, or at least be ashamed of possessing." 

The Herald article reads: 

" New Berne, Feb. 24, 1864. 

"From Plymouth we learn that C. W. Flusser, the Naval 
hero of these waters, commanding the Naval forces of that 
point, is, as usual, ready and very anxious to see the enemy. 
Gen. Wessells, in command of the Army forces there, who 
enjoys a great popularity with his troops and the people, has 
sent word to Gen. Peck that he and Flusser can hold Plymou,th 
against any force the enemy may send." 

The test of ability in an officer in time of war is found in 
the success that he achieves with the instruments given him 
to work with. Flusser had, besides his own ship, with its 
heavy weight of metal, the Sonthfield, under French, a large 
and powerful boat that had been taken from the Staten Island 
Ferry. She, too, carried a fine battery — her vulnerable point 
being, of course, her exposed machinery — together with the 
Whitehead and the Ceres, both small and chiefly serviceable 
for picket duty. Flusser writes Davenport under date of 
13th May, 1864: " I like Gen. Wessells; we will get along com- 
fortably together." As a matter of fact, he entertained a 
justly high opinion of Wessells' capacity and soldierly qualities. 
The co-operation of the two officers was hearty and most 
effectual. There was nothing in Flusser of that complaining 
spirit that waits to have a complete outfit before daring to 
make an attempt. He was content to go ahead, and do his 
best, with what means were actually put into his hands. He 
perfectly well knew, for instance, the numerous obstacles 
that prevented the hurried building and hastening to him of a 



12 



light-draught monitor. He determined to be ready on the 
instant to cope with the enemy's ironclad, no matter whether 
the Navy Department should send him armored vessels or not. 
He was fertile of invention, and quick to see the true bearings 
of offense and defense under new conditions. 

Flusser's plan was a simple one. It was to lash together 
the Miami and the Soitthfield. They were to be securely 
chained so that the two vessels could be handled as one. By 
running directly upon the ram and getting her between the 
two ships, so that the forward guns of each could play upon 
her sides, he was confident that he would have the iron mon- 
ster at his mercy. 

The sequel will show why the plan could not be carried into 
effect. In April, when the days were growing longer, the 
weather milder, and the river was running full from recent 
rains, ominous signs told us that the long-expected attack 
was nigh at hand. 

To his young sister on the 12th Flusser wrote: "I shall 
have a formidable antagonist, little one, but I shall not fail 
to ask God's aid." 

On Sunday afternoon, of the 17th, about five o'clock 
our captain came hastily on board and we went at once 
to quarters. Our outer pickets, it seems, had been driven 
in; and there was reason to believe that the enemy was 
advancing in force. A mile or so up the river, in plain sight of 
our ship, was an earth-work called Fort Gray. We soon saw 
puffs of smoke indicating firing from the fort; and the en- 
gagement at that point not long after became very brisk. I 
remember with what feelings of mingled sadness and indigna- 
tion I saw our flag shot down. But the gallant fellows at the 
fort quickly replaced it upon, I believe, a tree near by. All 
Monday there was skirmishing at the front. About six 



13 

o'clock in the evening we fell to work loosing the chains and 
hawsers that l)Ound us to the Southficld. This was done that 
the Miami might drop down the river to the lower picket 
station, while the Soiithfield went up, so that each could shell 
the enemy. The aid given by our 9-inch guns was timely and 
of essential service in repelling the furious assaults. We 
knew for a certainty that the ram would be down that night. 
Late on Monday Flusser sent off a brief dispatch to Daven- 
port, and with it this, the last letter he ever wrote: 

" Miami, Plymouth, N. C, i8th April, 1864. 
My Dear Davenport: 

The Army has been engaged with the enemy oiT and on all 
day. 

About sunset the rebs advanced along our whole line, but 
were driven back. They were obstinate, and continued to 
fight till near nine o'clock. The Soiithfield and Miami took 
part, and the General says our firing was admirable. 

I am fearful for Fort Gray. The enemy has established a 
battery of long-range guns above it, with which they would 
sink all our boats if we went near enough to the Fort to fire 
grape and canister into the enemy's infantry. They sunk 
the Army steamer Bombshell to-day, temporarily under com- 
mand of Ensign Stokes, who fought her well. 

I gave the Army to-day one hundred projectiles for 100- 
pounder Parrott. Please send powder, shot and shells for 
that gun, for 9-inch and for twenty-pounder Parrott. 

The ram will be down to-night or to-morrow. She was 
just after daylight this morning foul of a tree six miles above 
Williamston. I think if she doesn't stay under cover of their 
battery established above Fort Gray, that we shall whip 
her. I had to destroy the obstruction in the Thoroughfare 



14 

as the Wliilchcad was above, and could not run by the battery 
placed below her on the Roanoke. 

I have written the Admiral. 

The 85th Redoubt repulsed three obstinate assaults, but 

the enemy remain near it. 

In great haste. 

Yours sincerely, 

C. W. Flusser." 

It was a custom of the writer in these private and con- 
fidential letters to send his compliments to the naval officers 
at New Berne. The letter I have just read is written on a 
half sheet of letter paper; at the bottom of the reverse of the 
sheet are a few blots of ink. The instinct of the gentleman 
asserts itself in this; that at the supreme moment of the 
imminence of an attack from a most formidable antagonist 
he should ciuietly add these words : 

"Remember me to your officers. Did not know this sheet 
was blotted till I wrote the other side." 

The South-field and the Miami had again been laid side by 
side and preparations begun to secure them as before. I can 
recall as if it were but yesterday the scene at about midnight. 
The moon was shining. The men were resting at the guns. The 
officer of the deck took his customary walk up and down. 
Everything was ready at a moment's notice. Capt. Flusser 
seated himself on the low edge of the starboard rail, I think 
it was, in the opening for the range of the pivot gun, on the 
quarterdeck. I sat there with him. His face wore the calm yet 
determined look that usually characterized him, but I fancied 
that he was a trifle more kindly in tone than was his wont. 
Perhaps it was a relief to him to talk of other subjects than 
that which was necessarily uppermost in our minds. I re- 
member his telling a story of a man who was chased by an 



15 

Indian, and who had crept in the hollow of a log; there he 
peeped out and saw the Indian brandishing his tomahawk 
and soundnig the war-whoop. "Warn't 1 mad," said he, "I 
was so mad that— I could have eaten a broiled chicken." 
The captain said a cheerful good-night as I went below to 
"turn in with m}^ boots on." It seemed but a few moments 
when the springing of the rattle called us to quarters. Shortly 
the word came to me, in the powder division aft, that Captain 
Flusser was killed, but that the men must not know it. 

The Albemarle, for so the ram was called, waiting until the 
moon had gone down, had passed over the obstructions (such 
was the depth of the water), had dropped slowly down the 
river on the further bank beneath the trees, and slipped bv the 
water battery without a shot being fired at her, then slanting 
her course had run her prow into the Southficld, which was 
on our port side. The Southfield almost immediately sank, 
carrying under a portion of the ram with her. As the iron 
monster lay abaft our port bow the first broadside gun 
forward of the engine shaft almost reached her with its muzzle. 
Flusser, it seems, himself held the lanyard of the gun. The 
captain of the gun said to him quickly, "There's a shell, sir, 
in that gun." "Never mind, my lad," said he, "we'll give 
them this first, and solid shot after." With that he pulled the 
lockstring; the shell exploded on the iron side of the ram; 
fragments of it came back upon the Miami, and Flusser was 
instantly killed. The officer of the division. Acting Ensign 
Thomas G. Hargis, was so severely wounded that in a few days 
after he died. One of the engineers also was slightly wounded, 
and one or two of the men, Imt not seriously. Flusser's 
presence at the gun was not chargeable to undue exposure of 
himself, but rather to the necessity he was under of seeing 
with his own eyes the precise position of the enemy. 



i6 



At the sinking of the Soiithficld, her commanding officer, 
French, a few other officers and several of the crew jumped 
on board our ship. The moorings had been parted by the shock 
and we were clear to take our own course. Instant decision 
had to be made. Single handed we were no match for this 
ironclad ram, and we slowly steamed down the river, stern 
foremost, firing our bow gun. The ram fired at us once or 
twice, but the shot did not take effect. Some of the Sotith- 
pckl complement were drowned and others taken prisoners. 

Had Flusser lived, in my judgment we should have either 
whipped the ram or been sunk by her. I firmly believe we 
should have gained the victory. This result I would attribute 
not wholly to the indomitable bravery and the quickly applied 
ingenuity of our commander, but in a measure to the unity 
of plan that he had resolved upon. Again, the inspiration that 
the living man was to the officers and crew was something 
indescribable. The action of Captain French in withdrawing 
the Miami from the river was prudent and praiseworthy. In 
trying circumstances that officer exhibited a fortitude and 
discretion that entitle him to grateful remembrance. 

The body of the lamented Flusser, covered with the flag, 
was taken to New Berne, where every honor was accorded it. 
His dust now hallows a beautiful spot in the grounds of the 
Naval Academy at Annapolis — an object of inspiration, let 
us hope, to the young gentlemen for generations yet to come 
to whom the country confides her naval honor. 

The action of May 5, 1864, in the Sound Ijctween the Albe- 
marle and eight wooden gunboats, under command of Capt. 
Melancthon Smith ; her retreat, and her subsequent destruction 
by the intrepid Gushing, are well known in history. 

One incident attending the death of Flusser deserves to 
be mentioned here, since it is not generally known. The 



17 

Albemarle was fought with skill and daring by the Confederate 
Commander James W. Cooke, whom Flusser well knew as a 
former officer of the United States Navy. In the engagement 
at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, February lo, 1862, Cooke 
commanded the Ellis, a small paddle-wheel ferry-boat. She 
was driven oh shore under fire from our gun-boats and grounded 
in two feet of water. Cooke gave orders for his men to save 
themselves, and they threw their muskets on deck and 
scrambled for shore. Cooke himself stayed on board the 
Ellis firing with the abandoned muskets. 

Flusser, in a launch from the Commodore Perry, boarded 
the Ellis and, recognizing Cooke as an old shipmate, ordered 
his men not to shoot, but to capture him. Cooke had been 
knocked down with the butt of a musket, and lay on his back 
slashing about with his sword and refusing to surrender. He 
was finally seized, carried a prisoner to the Commodore Perry, 
and later was paroled and exchanged. 

When Captain Cooke of the Albemarle learned of Flusser's 
death he expressed sorrow, especially that it should have oc- 
curred in combat with himself whose life Flusser had saved 
about two years before. 

The Confederates having thus got control of the river, 
their forces under Gen. Hoke assaulted our fortifications, and 
Wessells after a most heroic defense was compelled to yield 
to superior numbers. Wessells' official report is a model of its 
kind. His tribute to Captain Flusser breathes a spirit of mag- 
nanimity and admiration. 

Rear-Admiral Lee writes the Secretary of the Navy under 
date of 23d April, 1864, "This brave officer was a native 
of Maryland and a citizen of Kentucky. His patriotic and 
distinguished services had won for him the respect and esteem 
of the navy and his country. He was generous, good and 



i8 



gallant, and his untimely death is a real and great loss to the 
public service." 

These are not the studied words of empty praise. They ex- 
press in moderate terms what everybody who knew Flusser sin- 
cerely thought of him. Had he lived, Flusser would undoubt- 
edly have risen to high rank in his profession. His ambition 
was of the right stuff — a devotion to duty and a love of country 
that knew no danger too great for him to encounter in her 
defense. 

Though a man of the world, tliis distinguished officer felt 
the full force of the serious side" of life. I have it on good 
authoritv that he once told an intimate friend that it was 
his custom upon going into action to retire first to his cabin 
and falling on his knees, to ask God to give him the victory. 
I feel that anv word of mine is inadequate to portray his 
truly noble qualities to the reader that knew him not. 

The other day I addressed a letter to an old companion of 
the pay corps in those long ago days, Harry Anderson, of 
Portland, Maine, who was paymaster of the Commodore 
Perry. I cannot better close this hastily prepared sketch than 
by quoting from his reply: 

"I was glad to hear from you, and your letter brings up 
such a host of recollections that I feel as if I must answer it 
at once. ... 

You are ciuite right in saying that full justice has never 
been given to Flusser, and I am glad to hear that steps are 
being taken to place him where he belongs. He looms up in my 
recollections as one of the most picturesque figures of the war, 
and his eagle eye and thirteenth century face are as distinct 
to me now as if I had seen him yesterday. You know that 
I was in daily contact with him for more than a year and was 
his friend, companion and confidant during the whole time. 



19 

I have not only the greatest admiration for his exceptional 
qualities as a brave and gallant commander, but I had also a 
great love for him as a man and a comrade. It seems to me 
at this day as if 1 have never seen a man in which the kingly 
and heroic qualities were so beautifully combined with almost 
a womanly softness and tenderness. I should be glad to 
give the Department any data they may want in my posses- 
sion, and if I can be of the slightest service in emphasizing 
the valuable and truly heroic lesson of his life I should only be 
glad to do so." 

The writer closes with the remark that I am sure you will 
be glad to hear: 

"Strangely enough, I have myself for some time been con- 
templating the preparation of a paper on Flusser to read 
before our Loyal Legion Commandery." 



20 



APPENDIX. 



Companion Joseph Nelson Miller, Rear-Admiral, United 
States Navy (retired), upon request, has kindly written out 
some recollections of his friend Flusser, at the period when 
the two were midshipmen at the Naval Academy. The 
Admiral's valuable letter, which shows a clear insight and 
due appreciation of certain qualities of young Flusser's char- 
acter, is herewith appended: 

The Champernowne, 
Kittery Point, Maine, August 7, 1900. 
Dear Mr. Hackett: 

I am under many obligations to you for your courtesy in 
permitting me to read your very interesting paper on "Flus- 
ser and the Albemarle." 

Some thirty-eight years or more have elapsed since I last 
saw Flusser, and, of course, many of the incidents that oc- 
curred during the two occasions we were thrown together as 
instructors at the Naval Academy have been forgotten. We 
had rooms in the bachelor's quarters, and became very inti- 
mate, and although there was a difference of only three or 
four years in our ages, he often spoke to others of me as his 
younger brother. I had the greatest admiration for his 
character as an officer and a gentleman, and for his many 
varied attainments, and showed this by my deference to his 
opinions and advice. He was generous to a fault, although 
not a spendthrift, and I never knew him to be guilty of an 
ungentlemanly or mean act. 

Unfortunately, he left no picture of himself that would 
convey to strangers the kind of man that he was. My 
recollection of him is that he was about five feet seven and a 



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half inches in height, sHm in build, and of a graceful, erect 
figure. His face indicated the strength of his character, and 
his eyes were large, bright and expressive. When he smiled, 
he showed his white teeth slightly through his small, brown 
moustache, and his expression was most winning and kindly. 
When angry he showed in his face a determination of char- 
acter that convinced me of the truthfulness of some of the 
stories that I had heard of his courage in his younger days. 

While we were associated together he was temperate in all 
his haljits, never drinking even wine. When dining out he 
would raise the glass to his lips without showing to others 
that he was not following their example. He was c|uick in 
his movements, and very active. I have seen him stand at 
the foot of my bed and spring onto the bed backward over 
the foot-board, which came to the small of his back. Some- 
times, in going out of the grounds, he would tell me to take 
the gate, and then he would scale the high wall like a cat, and 
be waiting for me at the gate. 

He possessed an excellent mathematical mind, and I am 
sure he would have made himself a famous mathematician 
if he had turned his attention in that direction. He was 
fond of good books, and had many of the best within his 
reach. He had a deep, well-modulated voice, was something 
of an elocutionist, and an excellent reader. He would take 
up a prayer-book in my room and read portions of the beauti- 
ful service in that book as I had never heard it read before, 
and that, too, without affectation of style or manner. He 
could quote many passages of Shakespeare accurately and 
with striking effect, and I often thought, if he had so wished 
he could have made himself a great tragedian. He made a 
study of words and their correct pronunciation, and to aid him 
he divided up a dictionary for convenience of handling, and 



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